


Remember when?

by hallowedxrose



Category: EXO (Band), f(x)
Genre: Canon Era, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2016-08-23
Packaged: 2018-08-10 15:25:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7850353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hallowedxrose/pseuds/hallowedxrose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She had always had the better memory. [A KaiStal slowburn]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Remember when?

* * *

The first time they held hands, she was sixteen and he was sweaty.

* * *

Soojung often told Jongin that she remembered this day vividly. Much to his chagrin, she usually brought it up when his palm slid down her forearm so that his fingers could find hers. He often wondered if she was trying to tell him that he had sweaty hands, but she would always give him this crooked little smile when he asked.

 

There was something about her smile. When they were sitting with their backs to a mirror in a dance studio, sharing a snack they weren’t supposed to have, she would give him this smile that made her eyes crinkle up. Jongin always stared at this smile a second longer than he needed to. If Soojung noticed (he suspected that she noticed everything), she didn’t say anything.

 

Jongin couldn’t remember when their secret snacks started to become a regular _thing_. As trainees, they weren’t supposed to be eating junk food. That didn’t change when debut came, either. He hated that he couldn’t remember, because Soojung was always telling him about things that she remembered.

 

_‘Remember when I cried before my debut and you thought I was sad, so you brought me chocolate?’_

_‘Remember when you cried before your debut so I brought you the same kind of chocolate?’_

_‘Remember when you, me, Jinri, Seulgi and Taemin got into huge trouble for sneaking out late to go buy ice cream? And Sehun was so mad that we didn’t bring him along, so we did it again with him and Chanyeol!’_

His memories seemed to come in fragments that were colored with warmth and happiness. Hers, however, were a vibrant and unending ribbon of lights and sound.

 

Most days he envied her this gift. But on the days when her head was pressed into the dip of his shoulder and she wouldn’t move or speak, he hoped she’d somehow gain his forgetfulness.

 

* * *

 The first time they kissed, she was nineteen and he was nervous.

* * *

 

In retrospect, it had been a long time coming. For a year or so now, every time he saw her he felt a prickling on the back of his neck and a twitch in his fingertips. His body yearned to be near her before his mind made itself up. Jongin knew full well that there were always consequences for idols when they dated someone. But in his brashness and eagerness he forgot these things.

 

When he kissed Soojung he now knew that she had never forgotten this hard fact. When his fingertips gently pressed into her soft skin, framing the high arch of her cheekbones, he should have known that she was already doing internal damage control. Her eyes didn’t flit over his face because she was nervous, but because she wanted to remember.

 

He kissed her like he meant it and she kissed him like it would never happen again.

 

A week later, when he told her he wanted to take her on a date, she laughed. It was a laugh that he knew well: she was forcing it. Ten years of friendship had taught him all of her idiosyncrasies, even if he could never explain them out loud.

 

So he asked her again the next week. Her face was steely ( _‘Okay ice princess,’_ he had said with a smile) when she told him she was busy. Jongin was determined and she knew it. His boyish charm was now testing her.

 

* * *

 The first time they went on a date, she was twenty and he was on tenterhooks.

* * *

 

It was her birthday. The fondant on the cake he had made her (Kyungsoo had helped) was covered in his fingerprints. She smiled and ate it anyway.

 

This time, when he kissed her, he tasted sugar and acceptance. Her fingers in his hair felt like a _'welcome home'_. She had forgotten her fear of being near him.

 

The whirlwind that swept them up after that felt like it came right out of a movie. In Jongin’s memories, everything was pink and rosy. They met when they could and Soojung would giggle when he showed up looking like a mess after a long day of practice. He felt lousy that their foundation was built on his head in her lap, too tired to do more than grunt as she told him about her day. She always recalled it with a fondness that made him forget the ache in his body.

 

Their groups co-conspired to help them “accidentally bump into one another” at events that the whole company attended. But this all came at a price. Qian gave him these scary little smiles sometimes, and Soojung would simply agree when he said that he was certain the leader had eyes in the back of her head. Once, while passing Amber in a hallway, he was pretty sure that she tried to threaten him about treating Soojung right. He still had the bass from the EXO set in his eardrums, though, so all he could manage was a very polite bow. Even Jinri sent him a message, giving him way more advice than he could have ever wanted. ' _Gross, Jinri'_  had been quickly replied to with ' _I'm saving you soooo many headaches'._

 

EXO was much easier to manage. All they did was tell Soojung that Jongin played League of Legends in the nude.

 

On their 100 semi-official days, he told her that he was going to start calling her his girlfriend from then on. Titles had never been discussed but he felt it was high time he started using some. She showed him that he had been saved in her phone as ‘boy’ with several heart emojis all along. “Ever since you gave me that messy cake,” she had told him just before he gave her kiss that became clumsy in his eagerness.

 

The first time they went public with their relationship, she was ready and so was he.


End file.
